Colonials earn third straight section win
YORK RUN – Albert Gallatin continued its climb out of an early hole in Section 1-AAAA with a workmanlike 76-66 victory over Kiski Area on the Colonials’ floor in boys basketball action on Friday night. Jawaan Alston scored 10 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth period, and also contributed 13 rebounds and five assists as coach Dan Andria’s squad jumped out to an early 10-point lead and stayed in control the rest of the way.
The Colonials (9-4, 3-2) lost their first two section games – to Latrobe without Alston and to Franklin Regional without guard Jake Magerko – but have bounced back with three consecutive conference victories and are tied with Franklin Regional for third place.
“I told our players heading into this game that we dug ourselves a hole and we have to get out of it,” said Andria after securing his 307th career win. “This was big. We have to go to (section-leading) Norwin on Tuesday, so it’s nice to go into that off a win.”
The Cavaliers (5-7, 2-3) led once at 3-2 before the Colonials went on an 11-point run to go up 13-3. Alston started the spurt with back-to-back hoops and Aaron Cromwell ended it with a 3-pointer.
“We could never catch them after that,” Kiski coach Shawn Bennis said. “We stayed in the game, but couldn’t quite get over the hump. One thing our kids have had consistently this season is effort. They never gave up, but Albert Gallatin had such a height advantage, and that gave up problems all night.”
Bennis broke out a new zone defense to try to combat the 6-foot-8 Alston, but 6-4 forward Nate Turner found some openings at key times.
“We had a mismatch on Turner a few times and he took advantage of it,” Bennis said. “Their coach did a nice job of seeing that.”
Kiski’s long-range shooting prevented the Colonials from putting the game completely away. Five different Cavaliers hit 3-pointers, including two apiece by Brady Pacific, Steve Yarussi and Brad Lookabaugh. Pacific and Eric Gadola led Kiski in scoring with 20 and 18 points, respectively.
Albert Gallatin led 15-8 after the first period and its advantage ranged from five to 14 points from that point on. The Colonials made seven of eight free throws in the final 47 seconds to salt the game away.
Alston had plenty of help in a well-balanced Albert Gallatin attack, and each player drew rave reviews from Andria.
Cromwell rang up 14 points, five rebounds and four assists. Turner, continuing his comeback from a shoulder injury in football, totaled 13 points, 12 boards and three blocked shots.
“Nate’s timing is still a little off, but he’s getting better each game,” Andria said. “I’d say he’s about 80 percent right now. He’s playing longer stretches each game. The thing I like about Nate is he sees the whole court.
“Aaron has really stepped up, too. He’s really smooth out there and he can hit the shot.”
Mark Marshall added 11 points and five rebounds, and Ricky Knox chipped in with eight points and five boards, including a tip-in at the halftime buzzer to give AG a 30-20 lead.
“I thought Mark looked at the basket a little more tonight, which we want him to do,” Andria said. “Ricky is Mr. Consistency. You always know what you’re going to get from him. You know he’s going to play hard, get some rebounds and he doesn’t take bad shots. I’ve said all along, he’s the heart and soul of the team.”
Magerko, still nursing a knee injury, had seven points off the bench, and Anthony Stevenson also gave AG some solid minutes.
“You can tell the knee is bothering Jake on his shot a little bit, but he’s money at the foul line,” Andria said, “and Stevenson played some good defense when we called on him tonight.”